SALE Sharks players ensured their place in the club's history books by finishing at the top of the Premiership for the first time ever.

The sell-out crowd at Edgeley Park were whipped into a fervour by three Sharks' tries in the final minutes of Friday's game, against Bath, and the celebrations reached a climax when the announcer confirmed that the bonus point victory meant Sale were untouchable at the top.

Fans are likely to be on a similar high for the Guinness Premiership semi-final, which will take place at Edgeley Park on Sunday, May 14.

"The club and the crowd just keeps growing and on the field is where it starts.

"Two years ago I was speaking to Philippe about joining the club and Sale were eighth, ninth, tenth in the league, so it's been a good turnaround.

"We can't celebrate yet, we've got to maintain it until the end of the season now because if we don't make it to the final, in a few years no one will remember that we finished top."

A 38-12 victory against Bath was not as comfortable as the scoreline suggests, with only seven points separating the teams until the last five frenzied minutes.

Jones admitted: "With five minutes left I was sat tearing my hair out, thinking of all the things we needed to work on."

But tries by Chris Mayor, Mark Cueto and Chris Jones changed all that and it is that level of confidence and spark that director of rugby, Philippe Saint-Andre, wants to see in the crucial final stages.

Saint-Andre said: "I told the guys at half-time just go and play rugby. We didn't have too much pressure on us before the game, we were already in the semi-final.

"The last five minutes were fantastic and when Chris Mayor scored the try it was a completely different team, much more confident."

He added: "We made mistakes in the first 40 minutes but at the end of the day we are top of the league and this is huge for Sale, it's very good."